Page 6 of Twilight Longings
“I’m in hell. Same as always. Any ideas on how to find Luca?”
Kincaid shook his head. “No. You?”
Saintcrow went behind the bar and filled two snifters with red wine. “Have you talked to the witch again?” he asked, passing one of the glasses to Jake.
“No. She said she’d contact me if she found anything. Maybe there’s nothing to find. We don’t even know if Luca’s the one responsible.”
“Who else could it be?”
“I don’t know.” Kincaid drained the wine in a single swallow. “I wondered if it might be Izabela,” he said. “I guess she read my mind, because what I was thinking really pissed her off.”
Saintcrow stared at him. “Izabela? What would she have to gain?”
“I don’t know. It was just a thought. Rosa said to tell you hello and wants to know if there’s anything the family can do.”
“I don’t know what the hell it would be.”
“She’s getting homesick. I don’t know how much longer I can make her stay in Arizona.”
“Text her a picture of Kadie,” Saintcrow said, his voice laced with barely suppressed rage and helplessness. “That’ll change her mind about coming back here right quick.”
Kincaid nodded. He couldn’t imagine what Saintcrow was going through, didn’t know what he would have done if Rosa had been similarly affected. “Do you think there’s any chance that the curse will just kind of fade away?”
“I don’t know. I suppose, over time, it might weaken. Then again, it could grow stronger.”
“How will we know?”
Saintcrow shrugged.” Bring in a young vampire and see what happens.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I guess so,” Saintcrow replied.
“Well, if this goes on much longer, I’m going to have to buy a house for Rosa. She’s going stir crazy in that hotel.”
“I thought you were staying with her folks.”
“We were. They’re great people but …” Kincaid shook his head. “Married people should have a home of their own. Ethan and Sofia are lucky to have their own house.” Jake grunted thoughtfully. “Maybe I should buy Rosa a house in Arizona. Or rent one, anyway.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Saintcrow remarked.
“Yeah. Listen, I haven’t fed yet. What do you say we go hunt something up?”
With an exasperated sigh, Saintcrow said, “Why not? I’ve got nothing better to do.”
They hunted the dark streets of Casper. On the spur of the moment, Kincaid decided they should prey only on red-headed women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five.
“Young blood,” Saintcrow mused as he ran his tongue along the neck of the girl in his arms. There was nothing like it. Kadie’s blood had been the sweetest of all. Kadie. Not for the first time, he wondered how long she could survive without feeding before she became nothing but an emaciated husk. If they found a cure, how long would it take for her to recover? Would she recover? What if being trapped in that damn spell messed with her mind, her memories?
Lost in thought, he bit the woman harder than he meant to. Blood spurted from the vein in her neck. Muttering an oath, he licked the wound to seal it, although he was sorely tempted to take her life. Why should this woman be alive when Kadie was locked in some kind of hideous hell?
“Saintcrow, don’t.”
Rylan muttered an oath as he lifted his head. He sent a grateful glance at Kincaid as he released the woman from his thrall and sent her away. He was close to the edge, he mused. Too damn close. “Let’s go home.”
Izabela thumbed through her favorite grimoire, her gaze perusing each page. She knew every spell and incantation by heart, had even concocted new ones. It had taken days to find a spell strong enough to trap and contain a necromancer. How in the name of all that was magical had Luca managed to escape? Knowing Saintcrow and Kincaid might err in some small way when they cast the spell, she had made it as close to fool-proof as she knew how.
And yet Luca had escaped. And in so doing, must have taken possession of another body, either man or animal. If he failed to find a suitable host, his soul would wander the earth without form, gradually growing weaker, until it floated into the atmosphere, a lost soul, with no more substance than a cloud.
